Thursday, January 19, 2017

Defending Yourself with Make Shift Weapons

Be polite, be professional, but have a plan to kill everybody
you meet.” –General James “Mad Dog” Mattis

Defending
Yourself with Make Shift Weapons

The
difference between walking away and becoming tomorrow's newspaper headline is
how well you are prepared to protect yourself in a bad situation…

While rare, violence often strikes when you least expect it. To
counter violent attacks, you need to be fast and furious. Hand-to-hand
combatives are a great tool to have up your sleeve to quickly dispatch an
attacker, but you should always be looking for force multipliers—tools that
make your counterattacks even more painful, damaging, and effective.

Having some sort of defensive weapon—be it a firearm, knife, or
spray—as part of your
EDC
is never a bad idea, but sometimes you don’t have one on you (like when you’re
in an area that prohibits weapons), your attacker has taken or knocked your
weapon away, or you’re in a position that makes drawing your weapon hard to do.

Thankfully, you’re constantly surrounded by potential weapons
that can be quickly accessed to counter violent attacks. To find and employ
them, you just need to hone the most important weapon in your arsenal—your
mind.

In the right hands, seemingly innocuous, everyday items can be
turned into lethal weapons. Such a transformation just requires violating those
objects’ Aristotelian telos—the end for which they were made. If your
life is on the line, I don’t think old Aristotle would mind.

Below we offer 12 suggestions of everyday objects that can be
turned into improvised weapons. Use this as a jumping off point to think of how
other objects could save your life in a pinch. When you’re out and about in
public, practice
scanning your environment and considering what might be used as a weapon if needed. Think
of it as creating mental models for your OODA
Loop
so you can win the fight if/when it comes your way.

Pot of Coffee

There’s
nothing like the smell of coffee brewing when you first wake up in the morning.
And if you’re ever attacked while pouring your cup of joe, you can take comfort
in the fact that you’re not just holding something wonderfully fragrant, but a
great weapon as well.

Smash the pot into your attacker’s face. The blunt force will
stun him, the shards of glass will embed in his kisser, and the scalding hot
coffee will make him wish he stayed home that morning.

Coffee Mug

Fire Extinguisher

Fire
extinguishers cannot only save your life in a fire, but in a violent
attack as well. Spray the assailant in the face to temporarily distract him and
disrupt his OODA Loop. While he’s figuring out what’s going on, forcefully
bludgeon him in the head with the extinguisher’s canister.

A Pen

In the right hands, the pen can indeed be mightier than the
sword. A stainless steel pen like this
Zebra number can be used to stab an assailant. Hold it with an overhand grip
and aim for vulnerable parts of the body like the face and throat. If you
really want to up your writing-implement-as-weapon game, get a true tactical
pen like this Smith & Wesson.

Keys

Your keys can start
your car or let you into your house. They can also savagely maim a violent
attacker. Hold the keys in your hand so their points are coming out between the
fingers of your fist. Proceed to punch your attacker in vulnerable parts of the
body like the face and throat.

Locking Carabiner

Carabineers are an
important tool for mountain climbers and have become a go-to key holder for
action-oriented gents. They can also serve as field-expedient knuckledusters in
a pinch. If you want to use a carabiner as an improvised weapon, make sure it’s
big enough to fit around your fist and has a locking collar (to prevent it from
snapping open while you punch a mo’ fo’). While aluminum carabineers should be
able to withstand the impact, for added strength, use a steel one.

Wristwatch

For a variation on the above, turn your metal wristwatch into a
quick-n-dirty knucklebuster by holding the bracelet inside your fist, and
positioning its face across your middle knuckles. James Bond uses his Rolex
Oyster Perpetual in this way to knock out a bad guy in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service. Keep in mind that
the impact of this move will likely break your timepiece. Bond was able to
write off the destruction of his watch to his expense account. You won’t. Of
course, losing your wristwatch will be a small price to pay if it saves your
life.

Aluminum Water Bottle

An aluminum water
bottle helps you stay hydrated while avoiding all those testosterone-lowering
xenoestrogens found in plastic bottles. It can also be used to inflict blunt
force trauma on a violent attacker. Ideally, you want the bottle to have some
liquid in it in order to give your makeshift club more heft and weight. Bash
your assailant’s head and face with it.

If you’ve got some
time and if your bottle has a key ring, put your belt through the ring and tie
it off. You’ve got yourself a medieval flail.

Belt

Just as you should
remember that your belt should match the color of your shoes, you should also
remember that it can be used as a weapon in a pinch.

First, you can use a
belt the same way parents used to employ it on their kids back in the day—for whoopins.
But unlike its use in dishing out old fashioned corporal punishment, you’re not
going to hold back on your attacker. Give him the ass whoopin’ of a lifetime.
Make sure he gets the buckle end of the belt. Aim for the face. The advantage
of using a belt as an improvised bludgeon is not only the significant damage it
can inflict, but the distance it allows you to put between you and your
attacker.

The second way you can
use a belt as a weapon is as a force multiplier when strangling an assailant.

Hornet Spray

We got this improvised weapon idea while
interviewing Navy SEAL Clint Emerson. Hornet spray is pepper spray on steroids. The former can
usually shoot up to 20 feet and provides a much more directed stream than you
find with the latter. What’s more, the chemical used in hornet spray is much
more potent than pepper spray and can potentially permanently blind an attacker.

Keep in mind, that due to the possible maiming effects of hornet
spray, one should only use it in life-threatening situations (like during a
home invasion). Using hornet spray as an everyday self-defense tool is illegal
in most jurisdictions. [We keep a can by every door in our house].

Flashlight

Every
man should not only carry a flashlight, but know how
to use it in a tactical scenario. Not only can it help you find stuff in the dark and act as a
deterrent to would-be attackers, it can also be used as a weapon. Maglite
Heavy Duty D Cell flashlights make for a great makeshift billy club, and many specialized
tactical flashlights end with a serrated or toothed bezel that can be used as
an improvised striking device during an attack. After you’ve shined the bright
light of a high-powered flashlight in your attacker’s eyes and disoriented him,
strike his face with the toothed bezel as hard as you can. The motion should be
like forcefully stamping him with a giant rubber stamp.

Smartphone

Today’s smartphones
have been designed to take a beating; consequently, they can used to give a
beating.

Tightly grasp your
smartphone in your hand and slam the edge and corners of it into vulnerable
parts of the body like the eyes, nose, and neck.

You could also put
your phone in a sock or other piece of clothing to make an improvised sap—a
weighted impact weapon.

Whether you’re at
home, the office, or out on the town, everyday objects that could be turned
into weapons are all around you. Should you find yourself facing a violent
threat, be ready to grab something and win the fight.

Source: Thanks to the Art of Manliness

Yours for a productive 2017,

Bruce ‘the Poor Man’

Critical Home Defense/Personal Defense, Arm Up
System+BONUSES

PM’s Guide to Home Defense Package…UPDATED

It is a crazy world out
there with plenty of violence and everyone knows you that under most
circumstances, police usually arrive after the fact. Your rights to
defend yourself are often under attack, even for non-lethal self-defense tools
especially in states in like California.

It is amazing that someone should
need ‘permission’ from the state to defend themselves, but as I said, we live
in crazy times.

This package includes the acclaimed
softbound book The Arm Up System – Defense Without Regulation, which
covers:

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